The Gardener's eyes, filtered through tactical night-vision goggles, coldly swept across the massive basement. The darkness did not hinder him; instead, it outlined the silhouettes lurking in the shadows.
The air was thick with the scent of stale blood and the earthy stench of soil. Heavy footsteps echoed from all directions, accompanied by the harsh screech of rusted metal dragging across the floor. Several ragged villagers with ashen skin were stumbling out of the darkness. They clutched chipped machetes, axes stained with dried blood, and iron forks with sharpened tips.
These were no ordinary zombies. A trace of eerie cunning remained in their eyes—a product of the virus mixed with some primitive fanaticism.
"Surrounded?" A three-dimensional tactical map instantly formed in the Gardener's mind.
Without a word, he quickly cycled the bolt of his assault rifle, confirming a round was chambered. Then, his figure blurred as he charged like a black leopard toward the wooden stairs leading to the second floor. It was the only high ground and the only way out.
"￥%...&(*&..."
Slurred whispers escaped the mouths of the Infected Villagers, sounding as if their throats were filled with thick phlegm and bone fragments. These sanity-draining cultist ravings echoed through the narrow space, sending chills down one's spine.
But the Gardener's only response was the cold crack of gunfire.
Pfft! Pfft!
The silencer muffled the explosive report of the gunpowder, leaving only the crisp sound of mechanical impacts. The head of the leading villager holding a machete snapped back as a bullet hole appeared between his brows, and his body slumped straight down at the base of the stairs.
However, more villagers swarmed forward. Knowing neither fear nor pain, they trampled over their comrades' corpses to climb upward frantically.
"Distance: 10 meters. Full-auto."
The Gardener's finger clamped down on the trigger and didn't let go.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
A dense rain of bullets poured down like a metal storm. The narrow stairwell instantly turned into a meat grinder. Flesh and blood flew, and severed limbs scattered everywhere. Bodies piled up layer upon layer, quickly blocking the lower half of the stairs as dark red blood meandered down the steps like a stream from hell.
Click.
The sound of the bolt locking back on an empty chamber rang out. The Gardener skillfully flicked away the empty magazine and swapped in a fresh one, but his calm eyes narrowed slightly.
"This won't do. I'll run out of ammo sooner or later."
The number of enemies far exceeded his expectations, and these semi-infected possessed greater physical strength than ordinary zombies, not to mention the reach advantage provided by their weapons.
Taking advantage of the wall of corpses temporarily blocking the assault from below, the Gardener turned and dashed into a room at the end of the second-floor corridor. He slammed the heavy oak door shut behind him and grabbed a thick bolt, sliding it home with a loud clank.
Violent pounding and the hacking of axes immediately came from outside the door, sending wood chips flying.
The Gardener ignored the commotion behind him, his gaze quickly scanning the room. It seemed to be some sort of ritualistic or record-keeping site; the air was thick with a strange scent of mixed incense and rotting meat.
Yellowed papers were piled high on a cluttered wooden table. The Gardener stepped forward and picked up a few. At first, they were barely legible Chinese characters recording mad ramblings like "Divine Grace," "Descent," and "Flesh Ascension," but as he flipped through, the writing became increasingly distorted and grotesque, eventually turning into completely incomprehensible gibberish—not a human language, but more like the scribblings of a deranged mind.
"A cult. Virus worship," the Gardener quickly deduced.
Just as he was about to turn and leave, half a photograph peeking out from under a heavy black-covered book caught his attention.
He pulled out the photo, his pupils instantly constricting like needles.
The background of the photo was the village's dirt square. In the image, Zhou Xili—the girl who had shyly served him food in the bridge tunnel—was being pinned to the ground by several men whose faces were blurred. Her face was a mask of extreme fear and despair; her clothes were disheveled, and her hollow eyes stared at the camera as if looking into hell. Surrounding her were bizarre offerings and entrails.
"I see."
This wasn't just a chance encounter; Zhou Xili was the prey of these lunatics, or perhaps some kind of "vessel."
"Looks like things are getting interesting."
He quickly tucked the photo and a hand-drawn map of the village from the table into a pocket of his tactical vest. Just then, the wooden door behind him let out a massive groan under the strain; a large axe blade split through the door panel. Following that, several hulking Infected Villagers with bulging muscles smashed through the door, charging in with roars.
"See you later."
The Gardener tossed the remark to the hulking men before turning, taking a running start, and slamming into the room's window.
Crash!
Glass shards danced in the moonlight like diamonds. The Gardener's silhouette leaped out of the window frame, tracing a black arc through the air.
Upon landing, he skillfully transitioned into a tactical roll to dissipate the impact of the fall, coming to a steady crouch on the muddy ground. He looked up, locking eyes with the axe-wielding brute who was roaring in anger from the second-floor window.
The Gardener raised his middle finger in a universally recognized friendly gesture, then turned and sprinted onto the village road shrouded in night.
Following the map's guidance, he headed straight for the center of the village. That was the core of the cult and the nest of these monsters; Zhou Xili was likely being held there.
Along the way, Infected Villagers wielding various farm tools and crude weapons lunged from the shadows, attempting to stop the intruder.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Gardener's pace didn't falter for a second. Every gunshot was accompanied by the explosion of a head. He danced a dance of death on the muddy road—precise, efficient, and ruthless.
Finally, he reached the square in the center of the village.
A Totem Pole constructed from withered bones and scrap metal stood here, surrounded by dozens of Infected Villagers holding torches and weapons. At the sight of the Gardener, the crowd instantly erupted, their roars deafening.
Facing the tide of enemies, the Gardener did not retreat. On the contrary, his eyes held a long-suppressed madness unique to the Black Watch.
He snatched a fragmentation grenade from his waist and violently pulled the pin.
Boom!
The grenade exploded in the thick of the crowd. Flames shot into the sky as severed limbs and black blood rained down from above.
The shockwave of the explosion caught the hem of the Gardener's coat, and he began to laugh cruelly. The mask of his taciturn nature was completely torn away, revealing the bloodthirsty beast within.
"Is this all you've got?"
The Gardener raised his rifle, no longer aiming for precise shots but instead pulling the trigger frantically. The muzzle flash danced wildly in the night, yet every shot blew apart an Infected Villager's head.
"Come on, you lowly worms. Filthy biomass!"
He cursed with a laugh as he pushed forward. When his rifle ran dry, he didn't reload; instead, he swung the butt of the gun, heavily shattering the jaw of a villager who lunged at him. The sound of cracking bones brought him a surge of twisted pleasure, like a complete madman.
"Want to kill me? Then you'd better sharpen your teeth!"
By now, the Gardener was covered in blood, his gas mask splattered with bits of flesh. The once-cold eyes now burned with a frantic fire. He was no longer the calm observer; he was a monster more terrifying than these zombies.
Dong— Dong— Dong—
The sound of a bell echoed against the gray skyline, sounding like the prologue to some ancient ritual or a death knell rung by the Reaper. The Infected Villagers, who had been frantically lunging at the Gardener, stopped in their tracks as if someone had hit a pause button the moment the bell rang. They turned stiffly toward the bone Totem Pole in the center of the village and began to chant that unsettling, eerie incantation in low voices.
The Gardener took the opportunity to pull himself away from the violent bloodlust. He took a deep breath, forcing down the boiling adrenaline in his body, and his green eyes regained their reason.
"A good opportunity."
He quickly pulled the blood-stained hand-drawn map from his tactical vest, his gaze locking onto a mark in a corner of the village: "Sacrificial Storage Room."
Minutes later, the Gardener broke into a subterranean cell beneath what appeared to be an abandoned mill. In a dark, damp corner, he found Zhou Xili curled into a ball, sleeping fitfully on a pile of straw.
"Mm...?" Zhou Xili opened her eyes groggily. When she saw the blood-soaked figure before her, looking like an asura from hell, she initially recoiled but then recognized those eyes.
"It's you!" She threw herself recklessly into the Gardener's arms, her tears instantly soaking his cold tactical vest. "I knew you would come to save me!"
The Gardener's body stiffened for a moment. He didn't push her away, but instead used his rough palm to pat her delicate face, confirming she had no obvious external injuries.
"What about my brother and the others? Didn't they come?" Zhou Xili wiped away her tears and looked expectantly behind the Gardener.
The Gardener fell silent. Images of Zhou Yang's miserable face and Gao Yuan's final scream over the walkie-talkie flashed through his mind.
"They're waiting for us at home."
A lie.
But in the logic of Black Watch, this was the optimal solution to maintain the "target's" emotional stability and ensure evacuation efficiency.
"That's great... but those lunatics outside..."
"Everything's fine now," the Gardener said, his tone as flat as ever.
Just as the two were crossing the village square to evacuate, the ground suddenly began to tremble violently.
Rumble—
Dirt exploded like a fountain as a Giant Hybrid Infected, at least six or seven meters tall, crawled out from underground. It was a monster stitched together from countless corpses, covered in rotting heads and severed limbs, emitting a nauseating stench.
"Roar—"
It didn't roar; instead, it squeezed a murky low growl from its massive, ulcerated throat, with foul-smelling saliva dripping onto the ground, sizzling and producing white smoke.
"Run!"
The Gardener shoved Zhou Xili aside, his assault rifle spitting out long tongues of fire.
Puff puff puff puff—!
The bullets hit the giant corpse, splashing blooms of black blood, but they couldn't penetrate that thick armor of rotten flesh at all. Instead, the attack completely enraged the monster.
The giant corpse swung an arm as thick as a tree trunk in a wide sweep. The Gardener rolled away clumsily, snatching the last grenade from his person.
But at the moment he threw the grenade, the giant corpse's other hand swatted him like a fly.
Bang!
The Gardener felt as if he had been hit head-on by a high-speed train. He was sent flying, slamming heavily against a wall. His gas mask shattered and fell off during the impact, revealing a face covered in wounds and blood.
"Cough... cough cough..."
He struggled to stand, but his internal organs felt as if they had shifted, causing excruciating pain, and his vision began to blur. Blood dripped steadily from his forehead and the corner of his mouth.
The giant corpse slowly turned around and raised its massive fist, preparing to deliver the final blow to this ant.
Smack.
A stone hit the giant corpse on the head.
Zhou Xili stood resolutely not far away, her small hand clutching another stone, tears of hatred streaming down her face.
She intended to use her own life to buy time for the Gardener.
At the moment the giant corpse's attention was drawn—
Boom boom boom—!
A series of dense artillery fire exploded on the giant corpse's shoulders and head. Flames shot into the sky, and the intense shockwave made the giant corpse let out a painful roar.
"What a pain. Even helicopters can't fly into this godforsaken place."
A deep, magnetic voice came through the smoke.
The Gardener struggled to lift his head, his vision gradually focusing.
In the midst of the flames, a man wearing a black trench coat with a Multi-functional grenade launcher attached to his left arm walked slowly toward them. Behind him followed a squad of fully armed elite Black Watch Soldiers, their heavy weapons providing relentless suppressive fire against the giant corpse.
It was the legend of Black Watch—captain Robert Cross.
"Don't die, kid." Cross glanced at the battered Gardener, a faint smile playing at the corner of his mouth.
"Sir." The Gardener instinctively wanted to salute, but his body would no longer obey.
"Evacuate first. Leave this to us." Cross waved a hand and turned to join the battle.
The Gardener nodded. Without any unnecessary words, he endured the intense pain, grabbed the dazed Zhou Xili, and stumbled away from the battlefield.
The night wind was like a knife, cutting across the desolate wilderness and whipping up the shrill whistling of withered grass.
After running an unknown distance, the roars and flames behind them had been swallowed by the night. Zhou Xili suddenly stopped, her body swaying like a kite with a broken string.
"What's wrong?" The Gardener stopped and looked back, his blood-stained face appearing exceptionally pale under the moonlight.
"Don't worry about me... you go first..." Zhou Xili's voice was as weak as a candle in the wind. She pushed the Gardener with difficulty, then her legs gave way, and she collapsed onto the cold mud.
The Gardener stumbled back to her side and knelt on one knee. By the faint moonlight, he saw her current state—her originally delicate face was now covered in eerie blue-gray veins, and her eyes, which always held a shy smile, were now bloodshot and terrifying, her pupils contracting violently.
"You..."
"Go, quickly..." Zhou Xili interrupted him with the last of her strength, then her consciousness sank completely into darkness, and she fainted.
The Gardener didn't speak, nor did he leave. His hands, accustomed to killing, were now trembling slightly. He knew what this meant.
The virus was eroding the last of the girl's life.
But he didn't raise his gun to give her a quick end, which was the standard procedure for Black Watch.
Yet it wasn't the choice he wanted to make at this moment.
With trembling hands, he opened a multi-purpose pocket on his tactical vest and took out a syringe emitting a faint blue light. It was the Anti-virus serum recently developed by Dr. Karen Parker at headquarters. Each squad had only one, reserved for high-value targets or as a final insurance for themselves.
Without a moment's hesitation, the needle pierced Zhou Xili's slender neck, and the blue liquid was slowly injected.
Having done all this, the Gardener felt as if all his strength had been drained, and he collapsed heavily against the roots of a nearby tree. The corrosive wounds left by the giant corpse were worsening frantically, black poisonous blood eroding his internal organs. Every breath felt like swallowing glowing embers.
Time passed in dead silence; half an hour felt as long as half a century.
"What happened to me...?"
Zhou Xili slowly opened her eyes. The bloodshot streaks in her eyes had faded, and that tearing pain had vanished. She propped herself up and looked around blankly, then saw the Gardener lying a few steps away.
That man, who was like steel, was now curled up in the shadows, his chest rising and falling so faintly it was almost invisible.
"Brother Gardener!" she cried out in a raspy voice, crawling to his side as tears gushed from her eyes.
"Heh... you're awake." The Gardener struggled to open his eyes, his mouth barely pulling into a smile that looked worse than crying.
"Why are you so foolish..." Zhou Xili wept as she stroked his cold, rough cheek, her fingertips stained with the black blood he had coughed up.
"This way... you can go home." The Gardener's voice was as light as smoke. This was the last bit of tenderness he could offer, even though it was still a lie. He owed two lives to Zhou Yang, Gao Yuan, and this girl. In this cold world, he, a killing machine, finally revealed a trace of human warmth beneath that thick layer of cold-blooded armor.
Zhou Xili shook her head, large tears splashing onto his face.
"Home? I don't have a home anymore." She choked, her voice filled with bone-chilling sorrow. "From the moment you said my brother and the others were waiting for me at home, I knew you were lying. Before those monsters took me away... they set the house on fire. I watched with my own eyes as my home was burned to ashes."
The Gardener was stunned, the light in his eyes dimming a bit more.
"Cough, cough... I'm sorry..."
With trembling hands, he fumbled a blood-stained Black magnetic card from his chest—it was the Access card to the F University headquarters, and the key to survival.
"This... is for you. Go to F University..."
Zhou Xili didn't take it. She tightly grasped the Gardener's large hand, which was gradually losing its warmth, and pressed it against her cheek, letting her tears flow freely.
"It's okay, I don't blame you. In this world full of monsters, I've long been prepared for this."
"What's the point of me living alone?"
"Heh... I'm dying..."
The Gardener's pupils began to dilate, and his breathing became rapid and labored. With his final breath exhaled, his hand fell limply, and those green eyes, which were always on guard, finally closed forever.
The wind stopped.
Zhou Xili quietly looked at his body and reached out to gently straighten his messy collar.
"I will stay with you."
She picked up the pistol that had slipped onto the ground and lay gently on his chest.
In this apocalypse, death might not be the end, but the only reunion.
She pressed the muzzle against her temple, a poignant smile curving her lips, as if she were about to head to a grand date.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out, startling several Jackdaws in the distance.
Two bodies leaned against each other under the withered tree, falling into eternal sleep in this godless world.